So I'm looking to brew a big beer that's going to come in pretty close to 1.100. This will be my first attempt at such a high gravity, as my last highest attempt was only 1.080. My Igloo mash tun will fit it at 1.25qt/lb, a little uncomfortably but not too bad. I could go as high as 1.5qt/lb if I filled it to the top, but for the reasons stated below, this seems like a bad idea.
I note that with the amount of water that has to the grain to get a beer that big, there's going to be like 4 gallons of first runnings, which is going to make sparging impossible if I'm running a 60 minute boil, with either batch or fly sparging, because there's no way I could get enough sugar out of the second runnings with the little amount of sparge water I would be allowed.
This is normally a run of the mill efficiency problem that I would just add more grain to deal with in a slightly smaller beer, but with how little free space I have left, there's no way I could add enough grain to boost the efficiency that much. I'm looking at like a 15-20% more than normal loss because of this, and there's just not enough space to deal with it.
So, I wonder if I could do this, and if so, what kind of ill effects it might have on the beer. With 26.5 qt. of water as strike water, I figure I need AT LEAST 6 gallons, preferably 7 of sparge water to get enough efficiency out of the grain to compensate, at least mostly. So I wonder if I could do a two step batch sparge with 3.5 and another 3.5 gallons and then just boil the damn thing for 3 hours, adding the hops at the 2 hour mark. I realize it would be cheaper in terms of energy use to add more grain, but that's simply not an option here.
So, what will this do to my beer? Is there a better idea that any of you have? I'm constrained to the 10 gallon cooler, and I have to work with the equipment I have. Recommendations? Other ideas?
I note that with the amount of water that has to the grain to get a beer that big, there's going to be like 4 gallons of first runnings, which is going to make sparging impossible if I'm running a 60 minute boil, with either batch or fly sparging, because there's no way I could get enough sugar out of the second runnings with the little amount of sparge water I would be allowed.
This is normally a run of the mill efficiency problem that I would just add more grain to deal with in a slightly smaller beer, but with how little free space I have left, there's no way I could add enough grain to boost the efficiency that much. I'm looking at like a 15-20% more than normal loss because of this, and there's just not enough space to deal with it.
So, I wonder if I could do this, and if so, what kind of ill effects it might have on the beer. With 26.5 qt. of water as strike water, I figure I need AT LEAST 6 gallons, preferably 7 of sparge water to get enough efficiency out of the grain to compensate, at least mostly. So I wonder if I could do a two step batch sparge with 3.5 and another 3.5 gallons and then just boil the damn thing for 3 hours, adding the hops at the 2 hour mark. I realize it would be cheaper in terms of energy use to add more grain, but that's simply not an option here.
So, what will this do to my beer? Is there a better idea that any of you have? I'm constrained to the 10 gallon cooler, and I have to work with the equipment I have. Recommendations? Other ideas?
